Review of Deaths in Disability Support: Special Report

The disability service commission report into deaths of people with disabilities receiving disability supports is a shocking read.

The report highlights significant failures from service providers across Victoria in both government and non-goverment funded services.

The report found an increased risk of choking for many service users because service providers are not following appropriate professional advice around feeding plans. In 2018 people should not be dying from choking-related hazards.

"This important review tells us that some Victorian disability service providers are not meeting their obligations under the Act to uphold the rights, safety and wellbeing of people with a disability," said Disability Services Comissioner Arthur Rogers (the Commissioner).

Incomplete and incorrect communication plans were also shown to be a contributing factor in many of the deaths investigated. As a person living with a disability, I know that without my communication I have no choice and control.

I have been in situations where I have almost choked, to the point of vomiting and if this can happen to me, a person with limited communication difficulties, it is no suprise that lack of communication can lead to death.

Finally, it is important to remind ourselves that people with disabilities also have health concerns like the rest of the community, so disability service providers should not automatically assume that symptoms are due to a person's disability.

As a reminder, please revisit my poem 'Caring Obituary' and think about people with disabilities who have passed away in care.



Caring Obituary

Day after day people with disabilities cannot live without carers but when do we notice the death obituary?

Every year we lay to rest people with disabilities but when will we recognise Care is in an unmarked grave next to them in the cemetery? 

Why does it take a senator in a wheelchair to read out an honour roll for us to see the people with disabilities who should be there?

How many have to grieve before the politicians will believe?

At four, I knew my first person in a wheelchair who died; when I got home I began to cry and said "Mummy, will I?"

When I was fourteen, I knew a girl who was only thirteen when she began to choke and when carers brought her breakfast in the morning she never awoke. 

At twenty-six I had been to fifty funeral masses when I stopped to count. 

Now at thirty-six the number does still mount. 

Many people with disabilities can only tell us what they want to say when they cry but why do we only hear it after they die? 

It is everyone's duty to care so people with disabilities do not place blame, it is our burden to share.

It is time to focus less on wealth and pay more attention to people with disabilities' health. 

So now let's take notice and do not whisper about death, no more time to be contrary because we cannot afford to be reading Care's obituary.